Des Moines, Ia (AP) — A man arrested last spring during a protest in Des Moines calling attention to racial injustice has been acquitted of a misdemeanor count of failure to disperse.
The Des Moines Register reports that a judge found 33-year-old Daniel Butts, of Des Moines, not guilty on Thursday of the count, saying prosecutors had not proved that Butts violated the law.
Prosecutors had argued that Butts was among those in an area where violence had broken out who failed to leave after police ordered the crowd to disperse. But Butts and his attorney offered video showing Butts had moved across the street from the area into a store parking lot were shoppers were still present and not rounded up by police.
